Overlords

The phone had been ringing non-stop for the last 6 hours straight. Victoria knew shit had hit the fan, and the last thing she wanted to do was deal with corporate. She'd been sent to this barren wasteland as a trial run for her shot at the executive branch, but now it was all burning before her eyes. Tori Dutton was about to get shit-canned. She closed her eyes and tried tune out the incessant voicemail notification on her mobile phone.

WHAM!

The mahogany doors of her office flew open, slamming the walls on either side. Two men walked in. Two of the worst men she'd ever met. Tori was a corporate defense lawyer for 10 years, so that's really saying something. The first man, dressed remarkably well for the circumstances, strolled to the front of the room with a cold, unbothered expression. He took a seat in the leather recliner across from Tori's desk. The other man was younger, a soldier. He just loomed over the first from behind. She wasn't sure if he was even capable of verbal communication.

"Miss Dutton..." the older man began to say, "We've been attempting to reach you for a situation report. If I didn't know any better, I'd believe you were evading these calls due to a lack of explanation. So, please tell me I'm wrong."

Tori physically gulped for the first time. Thomas Rideout had come 1600 miles to personally chew her ass. This was her boss' boss' boss' boss. Frankly, Tori couldn't remember if this was first time they'd ever spoke. She was royally fucked.

"Dr. Rideout, I wish I had known you were coming, I would have made copies of the reports for you-" Tori was cut off before she could continue.

"You would have known, if you picked up the phone." Thomas interjected.

Tori stammered slightly, then recovered, "Sir, I understand the situation is not being perceived well in Langely or in D.C. but I can assure you-" again she was not allowed to finish her thought, this time it was the not-so-mute.

"This dumpster fire is visible from fucking space Tori! How the fuck do you lose the only two elected officials in this whole godforsaken territory?? You can see 200 miles in any direction on your goddamn tiptoes."

Tori hated how much his voice turned her on. Dominic Rhine was a beautiful specimen of a man. Too bad he was a moron. "I'm sorry, do you have the resources to fight an entire fucking squad of those freaks? Because I sure don't. Nobody bothered to tell me when I came here that you were sending me into a hornet's nest. You said you were sending operators to deal with this shit and they never came. Those elected officials refused protection because their fragile male egos couldn't handle the thought of being protected by a woman. Spare me the Riot Act you pompous ass." She spat back at them with equal venom.

The older man's face now finally reflected an emotion, but was it disgust? Contempt? Rage? Rage. Definitely rage. Through gritted teeth and a locked jaw, Thomas decided it best not to indulge in the argument any further.

"Miss Dutton, I will be taking over as district superintendent from this point forward. All security personnel will now answer to Lt. Rhine. Where are you keeping the girl?"

Tori scoffed at the sudden topic change. Of course they wouldn't just concede outright. Men. "She's in the lower levels, we have retrofitted containment chambers. She's not going to try to escape again, the doc has her pumped full of drugs."

Thomas became immediately agitated by that information, "What? I need to speak to your medical chief immediately. That girl cannot be harmed. We've already lost one of our best assets, we will not lose her too."

As she hit the page button for Dr. Hayden Venderson, Tori inquired futher, "What do you mean another?"

"Your ex-boyfriend. He went AWOL. He killed 1st Sgt. Osborne, put Commander Gilbert in a wheelchair, probably for life. Nobody has seen him since. He cut his tag out." Rhine cut in.

Tori felt like she'd just been shot. Cyrus? There's no way, they had to be lying. But why would they? She hadn't seen him in months but... "What...? How- why?" She could barely think what to ask.

"He's a fucking abomination, that's why."

"Easy now Dominic. We don't want to upset the poor girl. Besides, we have other things to worry about." Thomas interjected.

Tori was barely holding back tears at this point, could things get any worse? Yes. Yes they could.

Dr. Vanderson entered the room, "You paged?"

Tori gestured towards Thomas as he stood up from the leather chair. Dr. Vanderson immediately went wide eyed. He rarely ever saw the corporate chiefs, and when he did... he didn't like it.

"Dr. Vanderson, I haven't seen you for quite some time. I hear you have young Evelyn under sedation after her Andy Dufresne impression." Thomas said.

"Yes Dr. Rideout, we do have her sedated, however, the dosage levels required to do this are becoming increasingly dangerous." Dr. Vanderson replied, he didn't want to continue pumping poison into this girl, but he didn't have a lot of choices.

"Why don't we go wake Evelyn up, I'd very much like to meet her. Miss Dutton, Lt. Rhine will need all of your intelligence on the group that captured Gov. Conrad and Senator Prescott. He'll take it from here." Thomas then left the room. After all, he had a date with a sparkling young lady.